 "Poetaster" was entered into the Stationers' Register on 21 December 1601, and was first published in quarto in 1602 by the bookseller Matthew Lownes.The title page of the first edition states that the play was performed by the Children of the Chapel, one of the companies of boy actors popular at the time.The play was next published in the first folio collection of Jonson's works (1616).